Hunan Normal University, founded in 1938, is located in Changsha, a famous city with great historical and cultural interests. As an academic institution of higher education with a full range of disciplines, the University has become a national “211 Project” university--one of the country's 100 key universities in the 21st century that enjoy priority in obtaining national funds.
After 69 years' development, Hunan Normal University has 23 colleges, 3 teaching departments, 51 research institutions, and owns 2 key disciplines of national level, 7 key disciplines of “211 Project” and 18 provincial key disciplines. The university offers 71 undergraduate programs, 147 master programs, and 55 Ph.D. programs. There are 10 postdoctoral scientific research stations, 13 State Training and Research Bases or Centers and 2 key laboratories which are jointly constructed by Minister of Education and Hunan Province, set up on campus.
Since its founding, the University has educated over 200,000 students, including about 4,000 international students and students from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, most of them have been well received by their employers both at home and abroad. Currently, over 31,000 undergraduates, graduates and international students are studying on campus.
There are 880 professors and associate professors at the University, among them are one academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The University highly values the academic exchanges with foreign universities and educational institutions abroad and has invited more than 200 scholars and experts to give lectures or do scientific researches on campus from more than 16 countries since 2,000. In addition, the University has established relations with nearly 100 foreign institutions of higher learning for academic exchanges.
The library of the University has a collection of 3.17 million volumes, including 200,000 volumes of old traditional thread binding books, and subscribes 4,700 kinds of Chinese and foreign periodicals. There are 12 academic periodicals distributed to the public at home and abroad. The university has its own publishing house called Hunan Normal University Press.
Consisting of five campuses, Hunan Normal University covers an area of 143 hectares with one million square meters of floor space. Most of the campuses with many ancient and newly built buildings are situated near the Yuelu Mountain and by the Xiangjiang River. The beautiful view with green trees around makes the university one of the 400 national models of afforestation.